InfoLab21 Boosts Sales At Paper Cup Company

InfoLab21 has been credited with helping to boost business at a new company which has sold 850,000 paper cups in the past year.

The Paper Cup Company was set up three years ago in the village of Worston in the Ribble Valley by Mark Woodward and his partner Jenny. It has been so successful that they now aim to produce two million paper cups a year.

Mr Woodward credits much of the rise in sales to a new website provided by the InfoLab21 Graduate Academy.

He said: "The website has been massively important to us. It has been tailored to our needs and was delivered to us in such a way that we can update it with ease. It has been a huge benefit in terms of getting our name out into the marketplace and in securing orders.

"As a young business, having Lancaster University there to help and guide us has been fantastic. We've also been on courses at the University that have helped us with marketing and have just built up our knowledge base."

The website was completed by Andrew Foote during his internship at the IGA. A graduate from the Department of Communications Systems, he finished his internship in March 2008 and now works for ROK Media as a PHP/MySQL developer.

The InfoLab21 Graduate Academy (IGA) provides ICT assistance for ICT & Digital small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the North West and is part financed by the European Regional Development Fund. Its aim is to give digital industries access to both the skills of IT graduates as well as academic research and development.

The Paper Cup Company now has four people selling the product, which goes into vending machines and coffee bars. There is also a factory in China, a warehouse in Croydon and a design team in Ireland.